PhpStorm 2020.1 Help

Work offline

A lot of features in PhpStorm require access to the internet. If you are working offline (for example, in an isolated environment), there are some aspects that you should keep in mind.

If you do not have internet access to view the online help, you can use the PhpStorm Help plugin, which serves the help pages via the built-in web server for offline use.

Updates

By default, PhpStorm is configured to check for updates automatically and notify you when a new version is available. Updates are usually patch-based: they are applied to the existing installation and only require you to restart the IDE. However, sometimes patch updates are not available, and a new version of PhpStorm must be installed.

If PhpStorm does not have HTTP access outside your local network, it will not be able to check for updates and apply patches. In this case, you have to download new versions of the IDE and install them manually as described in Standalone installation.

Without internet access, you can't install PhpStorm using the Toolbox App and snaps.

License activation

You can evaluate PhpStorm for up to 30 days. After that, you need to buy and register a license.

If PhpStorm does not have HTTP access outside your local network, you will not be able to use the JetBrains Account for signing in. However, you can generate an offline activation code that will be valid during your subscription term.

If your organization has at least 50 active subscriptions or licenses of JetBrains products, you can use the Floating License Server to activate PhpStorm instances within your company network. Keep in mind that the License Server itself requires internet access for connecting to the JetBrains Account.

Code inspections

Some code inspections verify external resources. For example, the Non-existent web resource inspection highlights dead links. If you don't have internet access, these inspections will not work and dead links will not be highlighted.

Version control systems

Most likely, your source code is under some sort of version control system (VCS). If a remote repository is not in your local network, and there is no internet access, PhpStorm will not be able to communicate with the VCS. For example, if you are using Git, you will be able to commit your changes but won’t be able to push them to the remote repository or pull updates from it.

Tasks and issue trackers

You can set up a connection with an issue tracker to work with tasks and bugs assigned to you directly from PhpStorm. For example, you can connect to YouTrack, Jira, GitHub, and so on.

If the issue tracker server is not in your local network, and there is no internet access, PhpStorm will not be able to sync your issues. In this case, you will be able to work only with local tasks that you create yourself.

Usage statistics

When you run PhpStorm for the first time, you are prompted whether to send anonymous data on the features and plugins you use, your hardware and software configuration, file types, number of files per project, and so on. This does not include any personal or sensitive data, such as parts of your source code or file names. This information is collected in accordance with the JetBrains Privacy Policy and is used to help improve the products and overall experience.

Even if you enable anonymous usage statistics, it will not be sent if there is no HTTP access outside your local network. Also, you can disable this feature entirely if you agreed at first and then changed your mind later.